AURORA, Colo. — Congress is considering making deep cuts to a federal program more than one million people in Colorado depend on for healthcare coverage.
To pay for some of President Trump’s agenda, including tax cuts and border security, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have advanced a plan that calls for steep cuts in other parts of the federal budget.
The plan also directs a House committee that oversees Medicaid to make $880 billion in cuts.
About 1.1 million people in Colorado are enrolled in Medicaid, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“Medicaid is not just a line item in a budget. It’s a lifeline,” said Jean Sisneros, a Colorado Medicaid patient.
Sisneros said having Medicaid ensures she can make regular visits to STRIDE Community Health Center in Aurora to get treatment for her diabetes.
“And just the consistency of care, the quality of care that I get,” said Sisneros.
She worries about what possible cuts to Medicaid could mean for people like her and the community health centers they depend on.
“It's devastating. I think it's devastating to everybody,” said Sisneros.
Colorado Congressman Jason Crow, a Democrat who represents Colorado’s 6th Congressional District which includes most of Aurora, toured STRIDE Community Health Center on Friday.
He said cutting Medicaid would be devastating to Coloradans who depend on it.
"To be very clear, those cuts would save no money,” Crow said. “They would cost us a lot more on the back-end. And that's just the economic consequences."
Dr. Megan Adamson, a family physician and chief medical officer at STRIDE Community Health Center, said Medicaid provides critical care to patients who would otherwise go without.
“Every day, Medicaid allows children, seniors, people with disabilities, and working families to get the care that they need without having to choose between their health and their basic needs,” said Adamson. “It covers preventive services, chronic disease management, mental health care, and lifesaving treatments that many simply couldn't afford otherwise. Without Medicaid, our most at-risk neighbors would face devastating health outcomes and our entire health system would bear the burden.”
Despite being in the minority party in Congress, Crow promised to fight to protect Medicaid.
"The Republicans in the majority probably don't have the votes that they need just with themselves,” said Crow. "So, they will likely have to come to us, and we will stand up and we will fight."
Denver7 also asked three area Republican members of Congress — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, and U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd — if they support the Republican budget resolution and its possible cuts to Medicaid.
Evans was the only lawmaker of the three to send a response on Friday.
“While we have only have topline numbers from the proposed budget, I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to protect hard working families, this includes commonsense spending reductions that combats waste, fraud, and abuse, tax cuts for small businesses and working class families, and increased border security measures to deliver our neighborhoods from transnational criminal organizations and fentanyl,” Evans said.
While House Republicans behind the plan say cuts are necessary to help pay for President Trump’s agenda, the president himself said he does not support cuts to Medicaid.
Yet at the same time, Trump has endorsed the House budget plan.
Senate Republicans have proposed a competing budget plan that was approved by nearly a party-line vote in that chamber early Friday morning.
While the House GOP budget plan rolls everything into one bill, the Senate GOP plan breaks the budget process into two bills.
Sisneros said she hopes lawmakers listen to pleas from people like her as they consider cuts to federal spending.
"Every person deserves to have healthcare, quality healthcare,” she said. “So please don't do this. Keep us, keep us funded."
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